Mafia-International Encyclopedia of
the Social and Behavioral Sciences
Neil J. Smelser and Paul B Bates
Abstract | References
"The term ‘mafia’ comes originally
from Sicily, where it refers to the private use of violence in public domains.
Whatever its feudal dispositions, mafia is a modern phenomenon. It developed in
the slipstream of Italian unification when a modern state structure imposed
itself on a predominantly agrarian society still largely feudal in its basic
features. In the absence of effective central control over the means of
violence, mafia took shape as an instrumentum regni of Italian politicians, who
chose to rule Sicily through its dominant classes, in particular the landowning
aristocracy and an upwardly mobile rural bourgeoisie. Segmentation rather than
hierarchy underlies its longevity in Sicily as well as its success in other
parts of the world where this specific form of organized crime developed under
similar conditions."
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleListURL&_method=list&_ArticleListID=-492270916&_sort=r&_st=13&view=c&_acct=C000228598&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=4b901d1d1a90859c5e31f50897d4cfbb&searchtype=a
When the National Prohibition Act became law in 1920 the link between criminal enterprise and government was well established in Sicily.
Prohibition brought the Mafia business/government model to the United States and made organized crime international.
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